Comparison of different lipid extraction procedures applied to three microalgal species

6th International Conference on Energy and Environment ResearchThe increase in the world’s energy demand has contributed to the emergence of new sustainable energy sources, such as microalgae, with their great potential to provide biofuels and other high value co-products for the food and health’s markets. However, current biorefinery methodologies are either too complex to extract the targeted components such as high-value products, or require solvents with toxicity for humans and the environment. This work aims to evaluate different lipid extraction approaches applied to three microalgal species: Chlorella zofingiensis, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, and Arthrospira platensis, while employing less toxic and more economical solvents for the lipids extraction. Experimental results showed a promising outcome to tune current biorefinery methodologies, enhancing product yield as well as decreasing potential hazards.Authors thank the financial support of the project IF/01093/2014/CP1249/CT0003 and research grantsIF/01093/2014 and SFRH/BPD/112003/2015 funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES, Portugal, and projectUID/EQU/00305/2013 - Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology - CIETI, Portugal. This work was financially supported by : project UID/EQU/00511/2019 - Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy - LEPABE funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), Portugal; Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939 (Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy - LEPABE, UID/EQU/00511/2013) funded by FEDER, Portugal through COMPETE2020-POCI and by national funds through FCT, Portugal; Project “LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION” - NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000005, funded by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), Portugal , under PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Authors also acknowledge the “Grupo Interdisciplinario de Biotecnología Marina (GIBMAR) and “Convenio de Desempeño Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Bioeconomía” from University of Concepción, Chile, for providing the support to P. tricornutum biomass production.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influence of cultivation conditions on the bioenergy potential and bio-compounds of Chlorella vulgaris

This study aims to evaluate the influence of cultivation conditions on the bioenergy and high value biocompounds contents of Chlorella vulgaris. Results show that the use of nitrate rich media, from 170.7 mg/L, favors a faster biomass growth, reaching values above 800 mg/L biomass. In addition, it favors higher pigments concentrations with more emphasis for the cultures with a nitrate concentration of 569 mg/L, where chlorophyll-a and carotenoids reached maximum concentrations of 6 and 2 mg/L, respectively. As regards the lipid content, nitrate deprivation (<28.4 mg/L) favors the accumulation of lipid content by microalgae (around 42%). The use of media with lower iron concentrations (0.5 mg/L) was favorable for obtaining biomass with higher concentrations of chlorophyll-a, at an initial stage, with values varying from 0.2 to 0.6 mg/L. In the tests carried out under mixotrophic conditions (addition of glucose), it was observed that contamination occurred in all the cultures, possibly due to the high concentration of carbon source that had values between 0.5 and 1.5 g/L of glucose, and consequently, growth decreased.Authors thank the financial support of the project IF/01093/2014/CP1249/CT0003 and research grants IF/01093/2014 and SFRH/BPD/112003/2015 funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES, and project UID/EQU/00305/2013 – Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology – CIETI. This work was financially supported by: project UID/EQU/00511/2019 – Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy – LEPABE funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC); Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939 (Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy — LEPABE, UID/EQU/00511/2013) funded by FEDER through COMPETE2020-POCI and by national funds through FCT; Project “LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION” — NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000005, funded by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Diagnosis of Human Leptospirosis in a Clinical Setting: Real-Time PCR High Resolution Melting Analysis for Detection of Leptospira at the Onset of Disease:

Currently, direct detection of Leptospira can be done in clinical laboratories by conventional and by real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). We tested a biobank of paired samples of serum and urine from the same patient (202 patients) presenting at the hospital in an area endemic for leptospirosis using qRT-PCR followed by high resolution melting (HRM) analysis. The results were compared with those obtained by conventional nested PCR and with the serologic gold standard microscopic agglutination test (MAT). Differences were resolved by sequencing. qRT-PCR-HRM was positive for 46 of the 202 patients (22.7%, accuracy 100%) which is consistent with known prevalence of leptospirosis in the Azores. MAT results were positive for 3 of the 46 patients (6.5%). Analysis of paired samples allowed us to identify the illness point at which patients presented at the hospital: onset, dissemination or excretion. The melting curve analysis of Leptospira species revealed that 60.9% (28/46) of patients were infected with L. interrogans and 39.1% (18/46) were infected with L. borgpetersenii, both endemic to the Azores. We validated the use of qRT-PCR-HRM for diagnosis of leptospirosis and for identification of the Leptospira species at the earliest onset of infection in a clinical setting, in less than 2 hours.publishersversionpublishe

A life cycle inventory of microalgae-based biofuels production in an industrial plant concept

6th International Conference on Energy and Environment Research, ICEERMicroalgae have been reported as a promising alternative for biofuels production. However, the use of microalgae for biofuels is still a challenge due to the intense energy use and the generation of a significant amount of biomass residues in the process. In order to analyze the environmental impacts of different technological processes for the production of biodiesel from microalgae, several studies have been published making use of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, which allows the recognition of the process bottlenecks and supports the identification of alternatives for a more efficient use of the feedstock. Therefore, in this study, a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) is compiled, based on real pilot-scale process data, which was scaled-up to a microalgae biomass industrial plant for biofuel production. Values of energy, nutrients, water, and materials consumption are used to create an inventory of inputs and outputs for biomass cultivation and biodiesel production, in order to acquire data to conduct a complete LCA modeling in future studies. According to this model, to produce 1 kg of biodiesel it is necessary about 12 kg of dried algae biomass. This study supports the decision-making process in biofuel production to promote the development of sustainable pilot and large-scale algae-based industry, through the identification of critical factors.This work was funded by: project IF/01093/2014/CP1249/CT0003 and research grants IF/01093/2014 and SFRH/BPD/112003/2015 funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES, Portugal, and project UID/EQU/00305/2013 – Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology – CIETI. This work was financially supported by: project UID/EQU/00511/2019 – Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy – LEPABE funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES, Portugal (PIDDAC); Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939 (Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy – LEPABE, UID/EQU/00511/2013) funded by FEDER through COMPETE2020-POCI and by national funds through FCT, Portugal ; Project “LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION” – NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000005, funded by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020), under PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) . Authors also acknowledge the “Grupo Interdisciplinario de Biotecnología Marina (GIBMAR) and “Convenio de Desempeño Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Bioeconomía” from University of Concepción, Chile, for supporting the experimental data collection at the pilot-plant in Concepción, Chile, during the Research Visit of M. Branco-Vieira.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Environmental assessment of industrial production of microalgal biodiesel in central-south Chile

Biofuels from microalgae have the potential to replace fossil fuels, without competing with other products derived from crops. This study aims to perform a cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment of the industrial production of microalgal biodiesel, using an autochthonous Chilean Phaeodactylum tricornutum strain, considering 1 MJ of biodiesel as the functional unit. For the compilation of the Life Cycle Inventory, real experimental data were obtained from the pilot-scale cultivation in a photobioreactor (PBR) module located in the city of Concepción, in Chile. The scale-up to the industrial plant considers that PBR modules are of the same size as those used in the pilot-scale. The Life Cycle Impacts Analysis considered the ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H) V1.00 method. Results show that the whole process contributes to a total of 5.74 kgCO2eq per MJ of biodiesel produced. PBR construction materials and energy consumption are the main contributors to the life cycle environmental impacts. The sensitivity analysis shows that energy consumption, water reuse and transportation distance of seawater from ocean to the industrial plant are the critical parameters that most affect the overall environmental performance of the system. The rate of water reuse is particularly critical to the global warming potential. Results also show that the valorization of co-products is an important aspect to improve the environmental performance of microalgal biodiesel production. Therefore, this study supports the decision-making process in biofuel production to promote the development of sustainable pilot and large-scale algae-based industry.publishe

Pyrene-p-tert-butylcalixarenes inclusion complexes formation: a surface photochemistry study

Diffuse reflectance and luminescence techniques were used to study the photophysics and photochemistry of pyrene within p-tert-butylcalix[n]arenes with n = 4, 6, and 8, and to study their ability to form inclusion complexes in heterogeneous media. Evidences for inclusion complex formation were found for the three hosts under study. Ground state diffuse reflectance results have shown the formation of ground state dimers of pyrene inside the cavity of calix[ 6] arene and calix[ 8] arene, with this feature much more evident for calix[ 6] arene. For calix[ 4] arene, only a monomer fits inside the cavity and the presence of pyrene microcrystals outside the cavity was detected. A luminescence lifetime distribution analysis was performed, revealing the presence of prompt emissions from the pyrene microcrystals outside the cavity in the case of calix[ 4] arene and from the constrained dimers inside the cavities of calix[ 6] arene and calix[ 8] arene. Transient absorption results have shown the presence of pyrene radical cation and also of trapped electrons for the three hosts under study. The formation of the phenoxyl radical of the calixarene following the laser pulsed excitation of pyrene at 355 nm is increased for calix[ 6] arene and calix[ 8] arene. This feature is particularly relevant for calix[ 6] arene, suggesting a very favourable situation for the hydrogen atom abstraction to occur. The analysis of the degradation products revealed the presence of hydroxypyrene as a major photodegradation product for the three hosts. Dihydro-hydroxypyrene was also formed in the case of calix[ 6] arene and calix[ 8] arene. The formation of the calixarene's phenoxyl radical and subsequent hydrogen abstraction is consistent with the formation of dihydro-dihydroxypyrene

Results of a school-based asthma assessment from the upKids questionnaire validation study

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